"You want to leave on good terms or… be strung up for hacking?"
Niko shied back then. He shouldn't have said anything. He felt he needed to
though. The truth mattered. "I want to stay on good terms, Sir, but I'd be stupid if
I didn't, as a medic, understand the psychology of the pilot I'm trusting my team
and others' lives with."
O'Conner nodded his head up and down slowly. "You really want to re-sit?"
Niko nodded without hesitation. "Yes, Sir."
"You're just a kid. Do you really think you know what you want in life?"
"I didn't," Niko admitted. "I just wanted to help, be with the ones I love, care
for a city that's—"
"Falling apart?" O'Conner asked.
Niko looked away, but nodded, too. "Yes, Sir."
"I understand," O'Conner said. "But you need to understand something too.
Canlas is on a different path than either you or Lacy."
The fact O'Conner mentioned Lacy threw Niko off a moment. O'Conner
didn't break his thoughts though. "Canlas is headed for something bigger,
something beyond Artem. You could follow her, but it might mean sacrificing
your own ambitions, your own potential."
Niko's panic rose, he couldn't bear the thought of losing Lacy for nothing.
"I won't agree for you to stay behind unless you can put something solid into
words for me about why you want to re-sit. You need to think carefully about
what you're giving up and what you're gaining. Because if you do stay it will
mean making sacrifices."
"Lacy," he whispered.
"Yes, you and Airman Kata do spend a lot of time together…"
Niko let out a breath then, and his words tumbled out. "I love her."
"A little too much information there," O'Conner let out a little chuckle. "Does
she know that?"
"No, Sir. I'm afraid."
"Your job and hers come with a lot of responsibilities. As does First Airman
Canlas's."
"I can fly a helo," Niko said. "I've never seen anyone take to the skies like
FA Canlas has, her videos, her skills."
"And her insubordinations…"
"Yes, she's a few discretions against her. I'm aware."
"More than a few. She's hanging on by the skin of her teeth after this last
lot."
"Because of her father?"
"Mostly, yes. But because we need her, we need people like you who can
think, who can do, and who don't fall under pressure."
"Like Dave?"
"He's a good medic, but he won't make the field." O'Conner disclosed.
"He is good. He deserves to move up. I'm not asking for anyone else to stay
with me, to do this."
"I know. The decision has to come from you and then from me."
"But?"
"I need three solid reasons you want to re-sit. Come back to me in twenty four hours and let me know them."
"Sir?"
"If you have three solid reasons for re-sitting, I'll let you do it. I'm not happy.
We need you up that ladder and out there faster than this, but I can't hold you
down if that's really what you want."
"I do," Niko said. "I'll learn even more and do more with her than I would
anyone else."
"Do you even know the students in the year below you?"
"No." Shit, he hadn't even thought about them. "Does that matter?"
"Three solid reasons. Twenty-four hours."
"Yes, Sir."
O'Conner moved around his desk once again and sat. "Dismissed Airman."
Niko left the office and yet stood still when the door closed behind him.
He'd promised Malaki he would think on it. He'd never thought he would
take her up on the offer, but now he needed to find those reasons to do it. Then he
needed to talk to Lacy. Really talk to her.
He hit her HUD with a knock. She answered, of course, as fast as she could.
He was walking back to his rack by then. There were no new orders for any other
missions out on deck, no practice. All study was just that, study, study, study.
"Up for dinner out tonight?" he asked, throwing as much excitement as he
could into his question.
"Sure," Lacy replied. "I'd love that."
"I'll pick you up. We'll walk to the gardens?"
"Actually, can we do something else?"
Niko frowned. "I guess, what like?"
"I want to show you something, just us, so wear something warm, but light."
"Okay," he grinned. "I'm not keen on surprises, you know that."
"You'll like this one, I swear."
"I look forward to it then, seven?"
"Sounds good," she sighed. "Gotta run, lots to cover today. Talk later, yeah."
She was gone.
Niko moved to his rack and swapped out his uniform for shorts and a t-shirt.
He needed to burn some energy and that meant only one thing, running. Ugh, he
also hated running.
He still slipped his sneakers on and, with a sigh, set off at a good steady pace
to lap his unit a few times.
While he did this, he set his Restricted Intelligence to a few tasks, mostly
digging up anymore shit it could on Malaki, and those in the classes the year below
him.
One name flashed up then - Justin Bridger
Get me what you can on him? He asked the RI.
There are blockages. It stated a few minutes later.
Justin was blocked from searches.
That was unusual. His RI had managed to get around Malaki's logs, really
easy with its programming. But it couldn't get around Justin's, that made no sense.
He stopped running and brought up the logs the RI had left in its wake.
With some other programming, it might have been able to get the info.
Instead, he sighed and sent in a request to one of the real hackers' gangs he knew.